DICKINSON COUNTY (AP) — The Latest on severe weather affecting Kansas.
Cleanup is expected to begin after a tornado that officials say stayed on the ground for about 90 minutes damaged or destroyed about 20 homes in rural northern Kansas.
Click here for VIDEO of the tornado.
Dickinson County Fire District One Chief Paul Froelich told The Associated Press early Thursday that crews have completed secondary searches of the damaged properties. He says no injuries or fatalities have been reported from the tornado that swept through a 23-mile stretch of rural Dickinson County late Wednesday.
He says residents had plenty of warning ahead of the storm, which likely attributed to the lack of injuries.
He says debris management and disposal will begin later Thursday morning. In addition to cleaning up the damaged homes, crews will also have to remove scores of trees blocking rural roadways.
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The Kansas Highway Patrol says about 20 homes have been damaged but there are no immediate reports of injuries after a tornado touched down outside the small town of Chapman.
Trooper Ben Gardner, a spokesman for the patrol, says troopers were checking a rural area in Dickinson County where it is believed as many as 20 homes were damaged Wednesday night, some significantly.
Gardner says troopers traveled from home to home to make sure everyone is OK but there were no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities.
The National Weather Service had warned people to take cover as what it called a “catastrophic”
tornado approached Chapman, about 75 miles west of Topeka.
The American Red Cross has established a shelter in the Abilene Community Center, 1020 NW 8th Street, to assist persons displaced by the severe storms and tornado that touched down in northern Dickinson County earlier this evening.
The Kansas Division of Emergency Management has deployed a regional coordinator to Dickinson County as a liaison between the county and State Emergency Operations Center in Topeka. Task Force 8 (North Central Region) from Salina is on-scene assisting the county with search and rescue operations.
Kansas Highway Patrol troopers are assisting the county with door-to-door welfare checks in the affected areas.
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The National Weather Service says a large tornado in Central Kansas that was on the ground for nearly an hour and a half missed one town about a mile.
Meteorologist Chad Omitt says the tornado formed just after 7 p.m. near the Ottawa County community of Niles. He says it stayed on the ground continuously as it moved into Dickinson County.
Omitt says it looks like “the heart” of the tornado was just about a mile south of the town of Chapman at one point. He says estimates are that the twister was a quarter- to a half-mile wide at times.
Radar suggests the tornado dissipated around 8:35 p.m.
Authorities are assessing damage, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Weather service crews will survey the area on Thursday.
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OTTAWA COUNTY -Law enforcement and emergency management officials are working to determine the extent of damage from the Wednesday evening tornado that rolled across north central Kansas.
Some damage is reported to rural areas along Solomon Road, according to Marie Ballou with Ottawa County Emergency Management.
“We don’t know the extent of the damage or whether there are injuries but there is damage reported near the Dickinson County line. A home sustained considerable damage, she said.
Troopers with the Kansas Highway Patrol were checking homes that may have been damaged in portions of Dickinson County.
Weather officials declared a tornado emergency for the city of Chapman. Some damage was reported west of the community, according to the KHP.
Check Hays Post for additional details as they become available.